Or rather, it’s fit for dolphins – two of which appeared to give USS  Minnesota the seal of approval as they spectacularly surfed its churning bow  wave during recent, successful sea trials.

The beautiful moment when the two mammals swam into the 8000-tonne Virginia  class boat’s forward wake was captured on camera and has been shared widely  online by gobsmacked viewers.

The video shows the dolphins leaping high into the air as the huge nuclear  attack sub, launched late last year, barrels across the surface at up to  46km/h.

Two Navy personnel can be seen watching from the conning tower as the mammals  ride the wave, apparently enjoying being propelled forward so quickly.

 

“That is a beautiful sight! That must be like a surfer’s dream to the  dolphins,” one online viewer commented. 

Dr Hugh Finn, a researcher at WA’s Murdoch University, said he’s seen  dolphins riding the bow waves of Australia’s Collins class subs in Cockburn  Sound, off Fremantle’s coast.

“Essentially the dolphins get a free ride from the pressure wave that a ship  creates in front of it,” he told AAP.

“The ship is moving the water for them and they are quite adept at riding the  wave.

“The same sort of phenomenon – including the leaping – occurs when dolphins  ‘surf’ waves along the coast.”